but thin and early became streaked with grey, at the age of 

 fifty-four it was silvery-white; his eyes, however, were large 

 and brilliant, and his countenance though rarely lit up by a 

 smile was friendly to those he desired to meet. His manners 

 were courtly as became a Prince, and agreeable when he was 

 not depressed with melancholia. He did not affect luxury in 

 his dress and rarely displayed gorgeous costumes, but on 

 ceremonious occasions he exhibited magnificent and imperial 

 pomp. Rudolph was an accomplished linguist speaking 

 German, Bohemian, Spanish, Italian, French, and Latin, being 

 quite fluent in the dead language owing to his early training 

 by the Jesuit fathers at Madrid. 



After an exchange of courtly phrases, Rudolph gave Dee 

 liberty to speak at length and he delivered a grandiloquent 

 speech in Latin telling his Majesty that he had come to Prague 

 to communicate a Divine message; Dee explained that for 

 two and a half years he had held converse with God's holy 

 angels through the medium of a magic crystal and the in- 

 strumentality of his "skryer" and that he had been recently 

 commanded by the archangel Uriel to give to the Emperor 

 the following reproof: 



4 'The Angel of the Lord rebuketh you for your sins ; if you 

 will hear me and believe me you shall triumph; if you will 

 not hear me the Lord God that made heaven and earth 

 putteth His foot against your breast and will throw you 

 headlong. Moreover the Lord hath made this covenant with 

 me by oath that He will do and perform : if you will forsake 

 3'our wickedness and turn to Him your throne shall be the 

 greatest on earth, and the Devil shall become your prisoner." 

 Dee then immediately added: "I conjecture this Devil to be 

 the Great Turk. This is my commission.'* 



Rudolph was at first amazed at Dee's boldness of speech, 

 then angry at his attack, but soon perceived that he had to 



31 



